Barry Bates – Green Wood Carver

Barry is a minimalist.

All his work is carried out on this bench.   It breaks down into 3 legs and a top for transport.   The metal bar bent like a shepherds crook is a very effective clamp to hold wood on the bench top. He does have more tools than shown here, but not more than wood fit into one medium size work box.

With this minimum he showed us how to carve various types of spoons.   Apparently traditional spoons differ from country to country. ? It was suggested that the differing diets may have caused the difference in design

Here Barry is roughing out a spoon. and the blur in picture is due to the speed that the axe head was moving.

Barry with an British spoon.  The final shape is created with very sharp knives.    He spends more time than I do to achieve a higher degree of sharpness.     It involves rubbing the knife with reducing grits of wet and dry and a final buff on a strop.

Contact on barrybate@gmail.com